Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa yesterday apologized for urging hundreds of drug users and pushers in Bacolod City Thursday to kill drug lords and burn down their houses.

De La Rosa said he was sorry for his emotional outburst that was uttered in anger over the state of the drug users he saw while in Bacolod.

“Do you want to kill them? Kill them. You are allowed to kill since you are the victims,” de la Rosa had told about 1,300 drug dependents at a “Pagtipon Para sa Pagbag-o (A Gathering for Change)” at the BAYS Center in Bacolod City.

But at Camp Martin Delgado in Iloilo yesterday, Dela Rosa apologized for what he called an “emotional outburst.”

De La Rosa said he is sorry for the undesirable statements he made, noting that a lot of people have reacted.

“I am very sorry, I am only human who got mad at what I saw,” he said.

He said felt so sorry for the users he saw in Bacolod, “I don't know if we can save their lives. According to research if you are a shabu addict, it is difficult for the brain to recover because it shrinks, and one's gums melt.”

“I told them you are just being fooled by these drug lords, you are the victims. The drug lords do not use shabu, they just accept money …you are the victims, it is your brains that are being destroyed,” de la Rosa said.

During his visit to the Police Regional Office 6 headquarters, Dela Rosa reiterated his call for the police to be with him in the war against drugs.

“Pag lumaban (If they fight), you know what to do. Don't wait to be injured before you shoot them” he told PRO 6 policemen during the 115th Police Service Day anniversary rites in Iloilo City, apparently referring to drug personalities, who may opt to fight against them.

“After the smoke clears, dapat ang criminal matumba( It should be the criminals who will fall),” Dela Rosa said.

In Negros Occidental, eight alleged drug personalites, including a former policeman, were killed in separate buy-bust operations of the police in Calatrava, Escalante City, Pontevedra, Murcia and Bacolod City, since last month.

The Oplan Tokhang campaign of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office also yielded 11,005 drug surrenderees in the same period.

Thirty-eight of them are graduating from a week-long drug rehabilitation on Aug. 27 at Camp Maj. Nelson Gerona in Murcia.*CPG/GPB